Walt's birthday was earlier this month and now our presents need to be experiences not things. He always has been interested in ranching so I thought a tour of the King Ranch would be a good experience.
The trip from where we were staying in Corpus Christi to where King Ranch is located took about 45 minutes through miles and miles of flat, plowed farmland.
The only way to see the ranch is by a bus tour that starts at the Visitor Center. I was immediately smitten by the gnarly old oaks in the yard.
I was happy that we were there in the winter so we didn't need to worry about the snakes.
Because the tour is on an air conditioned bus there wasn't many opportunities for pictures. So, in the few that I am including you may see glare or blurs.
The King Ranch is one of the largest ranches in the world. It covers 825,000 acres, an area larger than the entire state of Rhode Island.
The King Ranch brand is the running W. The origination of the brand is a mystery. There are many theories as to what it means but most likely is that it is a hard brand to change so it was difficult for rustlers to rebrand the cattle. The brand can be found all over the ranch.
Richard King was an 11 year old runaway from indentured service to a jeweler. He went to sea and eventually became a river pilot. He piloted steamboats between the U.S. and Mexico during the Mexican War and the American Civil War.
King first saw the land that would become part of the enormous King Ranch in April 1852 as he traveled north from Brownsville to attend the Lone Star Fair in Corpus Christi, a four-day trip by horseback. After a grueling ride, King caught sight of the Santa Gertrudis Creek, 124 miles from the Rio Grande. was the first stream he had seen on the Wild Horse Desert. The land, which was shaded by large mesquite trees, so impressed him, when he arrived at the fair, he and a friend, Texas Ranger Captain Gideon K. "Legs" Lewis, agreed then and there to make it into a ranch.
The first land puchase was the Rincón de Santa Gertrudis grant, a 15,500 acre holding that encompassed present-day Kingsville, TX. It was purchased from the heirs of Juan Mendiola of Camargo on July 25, 1853, for $300. Right about 50 cents an acre. As the years passed more land was purchased in Texas, other states and even out of the U.S. The holdings and varied businesses such as farming, turf grass farming, citrus growth, and recreational hunting are so vast it is hard to mentally grasp.
In the early days of the ranch there was a terrible drought in South Texas and Northern Mexico. Captain King traveled to the little hamlet of Cruillas in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The townspeople were in such dire straits that they sold all of their cattle to him in an attempt to survive the drought. A short distance out of town, slowly driving the cattle north toward Texas, Captain King realized that, in solving an immediate problem for the people of Cruillas, he had simultaneously removed their long-term means of livelihood. He turned his horse back toward the town and made its people a proposition. He would provide them with food, shelter and income if they would move and come to work on his ranch. The townspeople conferred and many of them agreed to move north with Captain King.
Already expert stockmen and horsemen, these resilient people of the rugged Mexican range became known as Los Kineños – King’s people. They and many generations of their heirs would go on to weave a large portion of the historical tapestry of King Ranch. The expert Kineño cowboys now occupy a justifiably legendary place in the annals of the taming of the vast American West. The mystique of the Kineños is alive and well, and descendants of the original Cruillas residents still live and work on the ranch today. The lady who was our tour guide is a third generation Kineño.
By the mid-1870s the ranch's hallmark stock had become the hardy Texas Longhorn.
The ranch also boasted several Brahman bulls, as well as Beef Shorthorns and Herefords.
The Brahmans, which were native to South Asia, were well adapted to thrive in South Texas' hot climate; they were crossed with the ranch's Beef Shorthorns to produce the ranch's own trademark stock — the Santa Gertrudis cattle, which were recognized as a breed in 1940. The Santa Gertrudis was the first American breed of beef cattle. Our tour guide said that the ranch has around 35,000 cattle on its holdings.
We saw several examples of wildlife such as deer, javelinas and this hawk. The guide said that alligators have moved onto the ranch but we didn't catch a glimpse of one.
The ranch has over 200 quarter horses. At one time the ranch raised thoroughbreds. In 1946 they had a triple crown winner named Assault. His gravesite is on the ranch.
Many of the ranch employees live in employee housing on the ranch. This is one of the benefits of working on King Ranch.
Pretty nice employee housing. There is always a waiting list for one of them.
The only stop on the tour is at the Weavers cottage.
The old weaver's cottage is where the ranch had their ranch raised wool from their sheep woven into their own blankets and horse blankets.
The wooden weaver's loom was custom made and all the blankets had the running w brand in the corners.
It was very interesting seeing the ranch and hearing about the history and the present day operation and just like Texas it was huge and hard to comprehend all the information into a manageable arrangement. I think Walt was happy with his birthday tour.
“Few cowboys ever owned much. The primary reward of being a cowboy was the pleasure of living a cowboy's life.”